Challenge Accepted
by LadySailor
Summary: Margaret Tate is a strong, independent woman who has gone through only relying on herself. Andrew Paxton is a sarcastic and passionate man who initially hated the witch of the office. After getting to know part of their hidden softer sides, both fell for each other. Now, Andrew is trying his hardest to get her to admit that she loves him. And she, is determined to not let him win.


_Author's Note:_

_I created this account a while ago and decided to finally start posting some of the stuff that I've been writing and keeping to myself. Not sure if it's going to be anything serious yet, but these are just drabbles of movie/show couples that I think are interesting to write about. I had a different account from when I was younger, but I'm going to post my newer stuff here to start fresh. _

_If you have any suggestions of couples with interesting personalities or dynamics that you think I could check out, feel free to let me know. _

_Anyways, please enjoy._

* * *

**Loving the Chase**

Andrew Paxton and Margaret Tate were quite the unexpected couple to have formed in the office. They had known each other for three years and seemingly out of nowhere Andrew developed a thing for her. This definitely was a shock to everyone who knew him, especially to his own family. Even though, at the time, they hadn't known it was a fake relationship.

Andrew had been _very_ vocal about how much he had hated every single moment with her. Her ability to infuriate him with her lack of affection and overwhelmingly high standards brought out emotions that he only had previously felt towards his own father.

One of the very reasons why he came to New York was to escape for that torture of being forced to do something he did not want to do. That freedom would be impossible with Margaret Tate breathing down his neck at his job.

Regardless of now negatively he felt towards her, he had to listen to her. After all, she was his boss and he had already poured too much of his precious time and energy into this job to quit now. It was going to stick it out until he got the position that he dreamed of.

He had always had the mentality of being against his boss because he disagreed with the way that she treated her employees. Her overbearing attitude made it dreadful to come into work because he knew that he could never please her constant demands.

It got to the point where him and the other employees made code words and phrases to warn each other about her current attitude. To others it may have seemed a bit excessive, but to them it was perfectly reasonable. Fire must be fought with a giant fire extinguisher.

He hates her. Well, he _hated_ her. Never in a million years would Andrew have imagined himself with his boss, the same person whom last week he would refer to as "the witch".

Now, Andrew couldn't help but laugh to frown to himself about the nickname he gave her. He was sitting at his desk in the office, watching Margaret speak to Jordan about God knows what. He could tell that she was on edge about something by noting how tense his buddy was trying to write down all the words she was hurling at him.

Andrew knew that Margaret had probably not noticed him watching their interaction. He had gotten the spot that the ex-employee, Bob, had had before he was fired. He had a decent view of the rest of the office and which meant a good view of the times when Margaret would leave her dungeon to interact with her terrified employees.

Maybe it was funny back then to give her a nickname that he believed suited her, but after spending that time with her in Alaska, he couldn't see her the same ever again. It was a pleasant surprise that she, in reality, was not that evil.

This also made him feel really bad about everything he has said about her.

She was only a real bitch at work, but that was probably because someone had to be the bad guy in order to get things done. The last couple days, Margaret has allowed him to spend more time in her office and he had been able to listen in on conversations that he would have normally previously excused himself from.

Before, he would pray for the poor soul on the other end of the phone call with Ms. Tate, hoping that she would at the very least leave their dignity intact. But now, he understood why she was so forceful and demanding.

When people called her, it was normally to discuss an issue they had with a manuscript or with the publication of the work she had spent a painstaking long time to meticulously edit. These mistakes were almost always due to someone's incompetence and they would create excuses as to why the task they were given was not accomplished.

She was not a woman that bode well with sloppy work. This was even more solidified by the fact that other people's fault would ultimately come back and bite her in the ass. The higher-ups would blame _her_ for not being able to get her employees to produce promising results.

It gave her headaches to have to deal with people that didn't take their job seriously. After everything she had to go through in order to get the position that she had now, she had no time for games. In her eyes, if they did not care about their position, they shouldn't be there in the first place.

When she would suggest to people to find another job, in her mind, it did not come from a place of mallous. She truly wanted people to be in a position that they actually had a passion for because that happiness would be reflected in good work. Those on the receiving end, however, for the most part always took it the wrong way.

It dawned on Andrew that he had misunderstood a lot about her.

She was not this big, bad, and untouchable entity that could not relate to other humans. In fact, she was probably the one who cared the most about her position out of everyone in the office. After all, she was even willing to marry her assistant to keep her position.

Margaret held up her end of the deal and was able to get Andrew the position of editor that she had promised him. He was grateful to her that now he was one step closer to reaching his life goal. And that goal was for sure obtainable with such a fierce woman by his side.

Andrew's office phone rang and it snapped him out of his thoughts. Begrudgingly, he peeled his eyes away from Margaret and looked at the phone. "Time to get back to work."

* * *

The next few hours flew by real fast. That always seems to happen when you're reading through hundreds of words, correcting all the errors that you find. If anything, there aren't enough hours in the day to get all the work done.

It was getting really late and Andrew decided to call it a night. He stood up and packed up his things in his leather computer case and turned off the lights in his room. Before leaving the office, he stopped to look in the direction of Ms. Tate's office.

Of course her lights were still on.

Andrew frowned and walked to her office, softly knocking on the door before stepping in. Margaret was sitting at her computer typing on her keys fiercely. Even though Andrew walked in, she hadn't looked up for the screen.

"Do you always stay this late?" Andrew asked, slightly concerned.

"Most days." Margaret replied coolly.

Andrew walked closer to her desk. "Come on, it's not good to stay here at night working. You need to take a break and get some rest."

Margaret shook her head. "Some of us don't get that luxury, Andrew."

Andrew squinted his eyes and decided that he wasn't satisfied with that answer. He placed his bag down and made his way behind her chair to spy on what she was working on. It seemed that she was working on editing the latest high profile manuscript that had come in.

She indeed was working on something important, but that didn't stop him for trying to get under her skin, and maybe, just maybe, under her sheets. Andrew placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned in so that his face was next to her ear.

"Come on, there isn't anything you can think of that would be more fun than this?" He whispered suggestively.

Margaret stopped typing, not failing to curse herself for being affected by his advances.

Andrew, noting that he got her attention, whispered again. "Did you think of something?"

Margaret couldn't help but to release a dreamy sigh. "Andrew…"

"I can tell you exactly what I'd rather do than be here." Andrew smirked.

"You American guys all think about only one thing." Margaret rolled her eyes and rolled her shoulders to remove his hands off her.

"That is so not true." Andrew scoffed indignantly.

Margaret rose an eyebrow, not surprised that he would protest.

"Oh, you're giving me that condescending look." Andrew laughed while pointing at her. "Very hot."

"Way to prove me wrong." She replied sarcastically, her fingers returning back to the keyboard.

"Nuh-uh. You're not working anymore tonight, Ms. Tate." Andrew swirled her chair around so that she was facing him.

Margaret was being challenged and she was not going to let little ex-assistant Andrew win this. She looked at Andrew's position seemingly dominant and smirked. He had placed his hands on both of the arm rests so that she wasn't able to get up or move the chair and he was watching her playfully.

In her mind she knew that he had the physical advantage, but she had the upper-hand with her quick and sharp tongue. "Look at you! You've grown some balls since we came back from Alaska. I'm _so_ proud of you, but just because you're a big boy now it doesn't make you my boss."

"It doesn't." Andrew leaned his head in closer. "But it made me your husband. In my opinion, that is way _way _better."

Margaret glared at him with those captivatingly piercing eyes of hers. "And why's that?"

"Because I'm with such a beautiful woman." He let one hand go and placed it on the side of her face gently.

"You mean bossy." She shot back without hesitation, her eyes not breaking eye contact with him.

Andrew laughed, agreeing with her. "Let's compromise and say you're both."

Margaret paused, before adding more to the conversation. "You forgot one more descriptor."

"Enlighten me." Andrew's eyes glistened with mischief.

Margaret pulled on his tie so that he was even closed than he was before. "If I want something, I'll get it. No matter what I have to do."

This movement caused Andrew to drop the hand that had been holding her face. Andrew gulped, his eyes dropped to her lips due to him being only inches away from her face. "Oh yeah?"

"Oh yeah." Margaret licked her lips, watching that he was looking at them. "But, it happens on _my_ terms."

And with that, Margaret slinked out from underneath him and quickly grabbed her bag that she had already packed up. She had already suspected that Andrew was going to check up on her and so she, intelligently, decided to get ready to escape his handsy self.

He was stunned. _That damned woman planned that didn't she?_

Margaret had already had an escape plan before he had even chosen to walk through that door. She manipulated his feelings of physical attraction towards to distract him so that she could get away at the most painful of moments.

More importantly, though, was that her unexpectedly sultry nature was not something that he thought he would see right now, but that is exactly what she delivered. His eyes shot up at the sound of the door unlocking to see her looking at him with an amused expression.

"I won." Margaret smiled at him and didn't skip a beat to exit the office with a sway in her step.

She knew perfectly well what she had just done and her heart was racing at the very thought of her teasing him. _Damn, who I am these days?_ She thought to herself. Since when had she been the type of person to be coy and play around with someone like that?

Especially with someone like Andrew, where there was so much sexual tension in the air that she felt herself slowly losing it. Not that she would admit that to him, not yet at least. Margaret continued her dominant march towards the elevator.

Meanwhile, Andrew grabbed his bag from where he had left it and ran after her. He knew that woman had always driven her crazy, but now it was a different kind of crazy. The more he spoke to her, the more questions he had. He craved to learn more and she loved the attention he gave her.

Although Andrew was unsure about a lot of things, there was one thing he knew for a fact.

He loved the chase.


End file.
